In-progress notes after the jump.

(more…)

In-progress notes from tonight. ABC and CW fall lineups in previous posts.

(more…)

This one's a lulu. Regular watchers know that I've had some fits while Malcolm has stayed cool. This time, not so much. (Thursday evening: I've switched to the YouTube version, which seems to be working better than the one posted here earlier.)

UPDATE: Next week is a three-song night, with each contestant performing a judges’ choice, producers’ choice and finalist’s choice.

I won't dread telling you who's out. After the jump.

(more…)

Creedence yes, Ike & Tina no.

I had some trouble getting onto the Rock Hall Web site earlier, but I wanted to check whether tonight's contestants stuck to the hall's "500 songs that shaped rock and roll" list that the hall thought was the basis of tonight's song selection. Now that I've checked, the answer is basically yes, although there were some nuanced differences.

David Archuleta: Both Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" and Elvis's "Love Me Tender" are on the list.

Jason Castro: "I Shot the Sheriff" is on the list, credited to the Wailers (with a note that the Wailers included Bob Marley). "Mr. Tambourine Man" is on the list, but for the Byrds' version, not Bob Dylan's original.

David Cook: Both Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" and the Who's "Baba O'Riley" are on the list.

Syesha Mercado: Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" is on the list. "Proud Mary" is on the list in the Creedence Clearwater Revival version, not the Ike & Tina version she drew on.

I'm not saying there was any more rule-bending here than in any given category on "Idol."
But, as you can see from the complete list, there were some real opportunities that the contestants didn't take on. I've already said that I don't think the show licensed the entire catalog. Still, the possibilities for great performances were considerable, and tonight's so-so results are yet another reason to lament the state of the show this season.

Notes after the jump. …

(more…)

This is one of those incredibly rare nights when the question of who is getting voted off is far less interesting than other stuff — specifically, how they handle the Paula disaster from Tuesday night. Theories and speculation have flown all day — it's been blamed on bad notes, confusion re the dress rehearsal, Paula's spaciness (whatever the reason for THAT), even Simon confusing Paula with whispers in her ear. (I don't remember seeing that on the air, but when clearly Paula's camp is looking for a plausible excuse, and shifting the blame is as good a way as any.)

But when push came to shove, Ryan delivered a vague, terse defense of Paula. He said the judges were thrown a curveball" (presumably by being asked their opinions sooner than planned), and that rumors about Abdul "were not true. She’s part of our family and we love her."

And that was it, aside from a lot of bowing to Paula during the show itself, including a big softball during the viewer call-in questions. Looks as if they'll just let the audience and the bloggers — hello! — keep yakking about the issue, fueling interest in the show again.

Anyway, in progress notes from the telecast, after the jump. …

(more…)

Since, as I mentioned below, I've been at the movies, I'm going to do some speed-watching tonight. But notes such as they are, including Paula losing track of who had sung, after the jump.

(more…)

(Update: Next week is the music of Neil Diamond.)

Every year there comes a point when the "American Idol" votes favor an undeserving contestant over better singers. You can trace the line from Nikki McKibbin to Sanjaya Malakar. And every year, when that happens, someone mutters about the show having turned into a popularity contest instead of a singing competition, even though popularity is crucial to mobilizing voters. Every year, we see someone who suffers from a passion gap — being good but not exciting enough in some way to make people believe I absolutely must vote for this person every week as many times as possible.

So it was on Wednesday night. Carly Smithson went home even though she was good while Jason Castro gave a truly horrible performance and Brooke White had to stop and start her song a second time. (And let's put aside this "Idol" nonsense of saying that's the first time it happened. I've rewatched the video of "Every Breath You Take." It's not as a big a restart as she had on Tuesday, but it's a restart nonetheless.) For the second week in a row, a good performance was not enough to save a singer.

So, if this is the way "Idol" goes, why am I still ticked off?

(more…)